12.12.12 Sandy Relief Concert (webcast)

121212concert.org; RobinHood.org; TheGarden.com; YouTube.com; Wisdom Quarterly

Rockers care on 12-12-12 at the Hurricane Sandy Relief Concert. Thank you Bob Geldof, a.k.a. "Pink," of the Boomtown Rats (LindseyCarlton/instagram.com)

Help the Robin Hood Foundation bring relief to Hurricane Sandy survivors on the east coast of the United States. And enjoy a world-class rock concert in the process. HERE'S HOW TO WATCH:

Donate online. Nirvana reunites on stage with Beatle Paul McCarthy as Kurt Cobain!

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12.12.12 Global Meditation (video)

TheMasterShift.com; Wisdom Quarterly; 121212concert.org; Quest4pce/flickr (photo)

The time has come. Today on 12.12.12 the entire world will be uniting in two global meditations to uplift humanity and bring about a positive shift as we enter a New Age. And there's a little concert for Sandy relief to unite everyone through music if global meditation is not their thing.

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Bhikkhu Bodhi WALKS to Feed the Hungry

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Buddhist Global Relief, FirstGiving.com); Wisdom Quarterly

Bhikkhu Bodhi, prolific translator

LOS ANGELES, California - On Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012 beginning at 9:00 am, American Buddhist scholar-monk Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is helping raise money to provide for the hungry. All are invited to meet like minded fellows and have a great time! Donate now. Registration will start at 9:00 am at Santa Monica's New Crossroads School (3131 Olympic Bl., Santa Monica), where some parking is available. The walk will start at 10:00 am and follow a three-mile route ending at Against the Stream (1001a Colorado Bl.) in Santa Monica, where a potluck lunch will be served. Participants are welcome to drop off food and beverages at Against the Stream before the walk. More

• Contact: Tom Moritz
• 310-963-0199
• tom.moritz@gmail.com

The mission of Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) is to provide relief to the poor and needy throughout the world regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, or religion. Bearing in mind the Buddha's statements that "Hunger is the worst kind of illness" and "The gift of food is the gift of life," BGR focuses on providing food aid to those afflicted by hunger and food-insecurity. Its long-range goal, however, is to combat all manifestations of poverty that detract from the inherent dignity of human life.

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American Buddhists walk to feed the hungry

Bhikkhu Bodhi (firstgiving.com); Wisdom Quarterly

This October the world's leading American Buddhist scholar-monk, advocate for women, and teacher of Wisdom Quarterly's editors, Bhikkhu Bodhi, will be walking, walking, and walking to feed the hungry.

  

Join the walk in New York, Los Angeles, and Escondido! Why? Every year hunger and hunger-related illnesses claim the lives of ten million people, half of them children. Knowing this breaks not only the heart of this preeminent monk and translator, but of all compassionate Americans. It's even worse knowing that instead of funding endless wars, just a few dollars can do much to relieve this needless human suffering.

• Bhikkhu Bodhi to visit Dharma Punx, Santa Monica, Oct. 29

Ven. Bodhi is an inspiration to Buddhists worldwide with his acclaimed translations of the Buddha's collection of sutras that have become the standard.
  
After giving so much of his life to studying and translating the Buddha’s discourses, he has gone a further step to show us the importance of putting compassion into action. 

As the great empire of force, theft, and violence, we must also help -- really help -- where it’s needed most. Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) exists because of his efforts, and it continues to be guided by his wisdom, compassion, and virtue. BGR is dedicated to combating global hunger and effectively changing and saving lives.

  

Individual stories may break our hearts, but they also lift our spirits, inspiring us to keep on walking for the benefit of the helpless. Walks such as these give poor and hungry people the resources, tools, and hope they need to live healthy, productive lives and become a source of help to others.

  

Do something

Now you have the chance to support Bhikkhu Bodhi’s walk to help change the course of someone’s life. Every dollar given makes a real difference, enabling children to eat, girls to go to school, farmers to grow more crops, and women to support their families. Learn more about how BGR works and hear Bhikkhu Bodhi’s words of encouragement at buddhistglobalrelief.org.

• Pacifica Radio out to save the world 
• Torturing accused in Los Angeles jails
• "Food Playground," permaculture in LA 
• Walk? Take Three Simple Steps
• VIDEO: Dr. Sebi cures all diseases

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Israel jonesing for war with Iran

BBC News (BBC.co.uk; Wisdom Quarterly (ironically) Q: Why do wars happen?

"Rahm was right. You look cute when you cooperate." - "Hey, you're not so bad yourself."

  

"Bibi, I can back you better than Barry can."

Israel's outgoing home front defense minister says an attack on Iran would likely [only] trigger a month-long conflict that would leave [only] 500 Israelis dead.
  
[This would, of course, be in addition to countless civilian casualties, mere "collateral damage," and thousands of evil jihadi Islamist Iranian terrorists intent on threatening Israeli rule in the geopolitical Middle East. Happy reports like this leave Israel/US jonesing for war and more war].

  

Matan Vilnai told the Maariv newspaper that the fighting would be "on several fronts," with hundreds of missiles fired at Israeli towns and cities [in a desperate attempt to engage in asymmetrical warfare with a nuclear armed aggressor, Israel, and its superpower ally, the USA].

  

Israel was prepared, he said, though strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities had to be co-ordinated with the US [of course. Israel does nothing without orders or tacit approval from the USA/CIA/MIC].

   

Israeli-Palestinian peace dove (Avi Katz)

Meanwhile, a US blogger has published what he says are Israel's attack plans: Richard Silverstein (Tikun Olam blog) told the BBC he had been given an internal briefing memo for Israel's eight-member security cabinet, which outlined what the Israeli military would do to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.

  

Tehran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful [But they can show the evidence to Saddam Hussein in Hades for all the international courts have in terms of an ability or eagerness to intervene]. More

  

"Oh, great god of Kolob, you know my heart. This is for the greater glory of our faith."

• [Barak and] Bibi's Secret War Plan
• This is Shock and Awe, Israel-style. It is Bibi’s effort to persuade high-level Israeli officials that Israel can prosecute a pure technology war that involves relatively few human beings (Israeli, that is) who may be put in harm’s way, and will certainly cost few lives of IDF [Israeli Defense Forces]
• Leaked memo: propaganda or war plan?
• West sabotages peace talks with Iran
• Painkiller abuse can lead to heroin addiction
  

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Audio Dharma by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Bhikkhu Bodhi, Tricycle.com, Chaung Yen Monastery

Afghan (Gandhara) style Buddha (San Francisco Asian Museum)

  

From the wide range of meditation subjects found in the Buddha’s discourses [sutras], the ancient teachers of the Theravada tradition have selected four subjects and grouped them into a set known as “the four protective meditations”: 

1. Recollection of the Buddha
2. Loving-kindness meditation
3. Contemplating the Unattractive Nature of the Body
4. Mindfulness of Death

The four are called “protective” meditations because each offers protection from a particular unwholesome tendency and reinforces a beneficial quality essential to the path. 

  

The four can be developed either as a preparation for a more intensive type of meditation or as independent subjects.

1. Recollection of the Buddha protects against dissatisfaction and generates faith [confidence] and devotion, which in turn give rise to joy. 
2. Loving-kindness is the antidote to ill will and generates feelings of friendliness and altruistic concern.
3. Contemplating the unattractive nature of the body debilitates sensual lust and inclines the mind toward disenchantment and [liberating] dispassion. 
4. Mindfulness of death is a potent remedy for heedlessness, reminding us of the transience of everything we cherish.

Over the next four weeks [the American monk] Bhikkhu Bodhi* will explain each of these meditation subjects in turn and conduct each as a guided meditation.

• Buddhist Global Relief
• A Critique of Bhikkhu Bodhi
• Reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations and copious commentary, one clearly understands he has a dry-insight method bias [characteristic of the Theravada school of the past few centuries], to the detriment of absorption practice (jhana).
• The Appeal of Buddhism in the West
• Padmasambhava predicted that, "When the iron eagle flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered over the Earth and the Dharma will go to the land of the red man" (Westerners were considered reddish pink by Asians).

*Ven. Bodhi teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. He is currently translating the Anguttara Nikaya, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha.

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Dalai Lama via WikiLeaks: Save Environment BeforeTibet.

Per, Jason Burke at The Guardian. A tip o' the hat to Rod at Shambhala Sun for turning me on to this story:

The Dalai Lama told US diplomats last year that the international community should focus on climate change rather than politics in Tibet because environmental problems were more urgent, secret American cables reveal.

I think the Dalai Lama is on point because we may not have an Earth capable of supporting either a communist Tibet or a free, independent and democratic Tibet. As usual the DL understands interconnection and it's importance. All links in the chain that make life live-able on Earth are essential. If too many of those links get bent toward a breaking point then it's not going to do the Tibetans any good. Unfortunately, many of us do forget about the animals, and state of the environment. It can seem to be, "just scenery" to some but it's vital for undertaking everything we do on this planet. Even the smallest things are integral to a life-sustaining Earth.

Coral, for example, is one of the smallest beings on Earth but it is essential and important in controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean. So, thanks to carbon dioxide pollution from our cars and factories, we have less of a carbon dioxide fighter in the corals. And, so, we see that environmental degradation occurs at a rapid rate, which compounds exponentially. So, not only do we lose a carbon dioxide fighter but we make the air and oceans warmer, which kills off phytoplankton. Without phytoplankton we make the air even worse for those of us on land!!

Dalai Lama is truly a man who understands the interconnection of life, so profoundly that he understands what's most important--and it's not politics.

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